"It's no longer a tennis match, it's a matter of survival": Magdalena Frech hits out at Wuhan Open conditions amid social media abuse

After being eliminated from the Wuhan Open and the torrent of abuse that followed, Magdalena Frech has hit out at the conditions at the tournaments becoming the latest to berate this latest set of events which has seen players collapse and withdraw due to the heat.

Frech was eliminated in the third round in Wuhan. After seeing off Veronika Kudermetova and Karolina Muchova, she was then defeated by Laura Siegemund in the Last 16 6-4, 7-6.

In response to receiving malicious messages on social media, she took to X formerly known as Twitter to respond with the 27-year-old calling out the playing conditions in the city.

"In response to the avalanche of negative comments after the last match, I would like to inform you that sometimes, I regret it, but I am not a machine, even though I feel that the organizers treat us as such when they set the match schedule," she wrote on X formerly known as Twitter.

"Playing three consecutive days between 1 PM and 4 PM, under extreme conditions, unfortunately has consequences on my health, which always comes first. Playing at 36 degrees, with high air pollution, heated concrete, and high humidity is acceptable if it doesn't happen every day.

"Unfortunately, the accumulation of all these efforts has consequences. I never felt like I did yesterday (Thursday), despite having spent several years on the tour. It was the lack of energy and the constant struggle against negative emotions that prevented my body from delivering a different effort.

"Hitting the ball into the court was a major challenge. It's no longer a tennis match, but simply a matter of survival. To all the fans, thank you for your support, your presence is very important."

But as well as the conditions, it also highlights another issue which is social media abuse with it becoming more and more prevalent. Eva Lys and Linda Noskova shared what they have received in recent weeks albeit both are well known for doing so to show the side to the tour life that isn't exactly pleasant.

While Frech doesn't do this here, she did use it to also show that it isn't all rosey and while she is trying in her words she isn't a machine. In Beijing perhaps it was a worse week as she was defeated by Ella Seidel in the opening round pretty comfortably in the second set 7-5, 6-4 in favour of the German. Prior to that she had not played since Guadalajara where she was defeated by rising star Nikola Bartunkova. This after a third round loss to Coco Gauff at the US Open.

But with Emma Raducanu for instance having to go to the doctors, Bianca Andreescu sharing videos of the amount of sweat collected at these events, it also reflects poorly on the Asian swing which has had issues on both men's and women's sides with the ATP seeing players collapse on court in Shanghai.

Holger Rune called for a heat rule to be implemented it has got that bad with this time of year being almost like summer as most of the rest of the world approaches Autumn and Winter and while it suits those from warm weather climates, for those without it can lead to what has happened in recent weeks.

But with comments for losing games mainly by fans losing money, as Frech has pointed out it is a matter of survival and so isn't particularly needed when playing in these events is tough enough anyway. Very much an interesting viewpoint on one of tennis's biggest questions right now in regards to the issue of heat and also social media being used to abuse mainly WTA players at least when it comes to public knowledge of this.